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Jewish World Review Jan. 27, 2005 / 17 Shevat, 5765 More on adopting Nixon's Vietnamization program to Iraq By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Readers reacted with much skepticism and more than a little mirth to my
assertion in an earlier column that President Nixon's Vietnamization program
was a good model to follow for success in Iraq. Obviously, more explanation
is needed.
South Vietnam fell in April, 1975, when North Vietnam invaded and Congress
reneged on a pledge to support South Vietnam with U.S. air power, if North
Vietnam should breach the terms of the Paris Peace Accords which, in
January, 1973, had ended the war on terms acceptable to us.
To say we won the Vietnam War before we lost it sounds like something John
Kerry might say, but it's the truth.
The Vietnam War was won in the 11 days between December 18th and December
30th, 1972. That was the time of the "Christmas bombing" of Hanoi and
Haiphong, the only time in the war that we used strategic air power against
strategic targets in North Vietnam.
"After those 11 days you had won the war, it was all over!" said Sir Robert
Thompson, the British counterinsurgency expert. "They had fired 1242 SAMs
(surface to air missiles), they had none left, and what would have come in
over land from China would have been a mere trickle. They and their whole
rear base at that point would be at your mercy. They would have taken any
terms. And that is why, of course, you actually got a peace agreement in
January, which you had not been able to get in October."
Even before the Christmas bombing, the ground war was well in hand, despite
(or perhaps because of) a draw down in U.S. forces from 550,000 in 1968 to
69,000 by the end of 1972.
The catalyst was the replacement of Gen. William Westmoreland with Gen.
Creighton Abrams after the Tet Offensive in 1968. Westmoreland — perhaps
the stupidest American ever to wear four stars — thought he could win a war
of attrition against North Vietnam. His strategy of "search and destroy"
resulted in thousands of unnecessary American deaths, and the deaths of tens
of thousands of Vietnamese civilians as "collateral damage."
Abrams emphasized protection of the South Vietnamese population by
protecting key areas; attacking the enemy's "logistics nose," and building
up South Vietnam's forces. (Read the details in military historian Lewis
Sorley's magnificent "A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final
Tragedies of America's Last Years in Vietnam.")
The proof came in the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive of 1972, a much
larger cross border invasion than the 1975 invasion. Outnumbered South
Vietnamese troops, backed by American air power and naval gunfire, crushed
the North Vietnamese.
America made many, many mistakes in Vietnam. But the vast majority of these
were made when Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson was president, and
Westmoreland was CINC MACV. Air Force Gen. T.R. Milton noted that the war
could have been won at any time from the Gulf of Tonkin incident until the
Christmas bombing:
"In those critical years between 1964 and 1968, before American public
opinion had become mesmerized, the truly critical targets were given
sanctuary," Milton wrote. "Instead, our airplanes were to go on giving
signals. The places where the signals were to be given soon became
predictable to the North, and our pilots paid the price."
The war ultimately was lost because American public opinion turned against
it. The turning point was the Tet Offensive of Jan. 30th, 1968. This was
widely described in our news media as a victory for the Viet Cong, when in
fact it was precisely the opposite.
The Viet Cong achieved strategic surprise (Westmoreland was asleep at the
switch), but the Americans and South Vietnamese fought back ferociously, and
the VC were all but totally destroyed. Never again would guerrillas be
anything other than a minor nuisance. The fighting after Tet was with North
Vietnamese regular units, infiltrated into the South through Laos and
Cambodia.
Walter Cronkite lied then as much as Dan Rather does now. He just wasn't
caught out. (Read the gory details of media misrepresentation of Tet in
Peter Braestrup's "The Big Story.")
The only similarity between the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq is that the
news media, once again, are mangling the truth in ways beneficial to our
enemies.
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© 2005, Jack Kelly | ||||||||||
